[Patentpractice] taking much longer for a response to a non-final office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?

[Krista Jacobsen]

I filed 5 OARs (all non-final) during the second half of September, and for
all but one (the last filed, also the only restriction requirement
response), it took 9 days for each of them to be forwarded to the examiner.
The restriction response was forwarded in 4 days.

I used to see delays in forwarding to the examiner when I replied
significantly earlier than the deadline, but the delay no longer seems to
be related to the proximity to the deadline: I filed the restriction reply
within a couple of weeks of receiving the OA, and that was the only one of
the 5 OARs that went to the examiner in fewer than 9 days.

Even the appeal brief I filed in August was forwarded to the examiner in a
shorter amount of time (7 days) than the 4 non-final OARs in September.

------------------------------------------
Krista S. Jacobsen
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Jacobsen IP Law
krista at jacobseniplaw.com
T:  408.455.5539
www.jacobseniplaw.com


On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 3:56 AM Randall Svihla via Patentpractice <
patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> OA filed on 09/30, forwarded to Examiner on 10/05 (5 days)
>
> OA filed on 09/23, forwarded to Examiner on 09/29 (4 days)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On
> Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice
> Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2025 5:37 AM
> To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal
> advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
> Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
> Subject: [Patentpractice] taking much longer for a response to a non-final
> office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?
>
> Hello folks.  Is it just me, or is it recently taking much longer for a
> response to a non-final office action to get entered and forwarded to
> the Examiner?
>
> And not just responses to non-final office actions?
>
> Also taking much longer for a response to a final office action to get
> entered and forwarded to the Examiner?
>
> In a recent case in Tech Center 2900, I filed a response on September 25
> and it did not get forwarded to the Examiner until October 8.  It took
> 13 days to get forwarded.
>
> In other recent cases in other Tech Centers, I have seen forwarding
> delays of 7 to 10 days.
>
> I fear that this is getting to be the new normal.
>
> In the old days it was commonplace that a response would get forwarded
> to the Examiner promptly -- within two or three days. Sometimes it would
> only take one day.
>
> The job title of the people who do this "entering and forwarding" is LIE
> -- legal instruments examiner.
>
> I can imagine that one factor explaining the new delays might be due to
> September 30 having passed and some LIEs who accepted the "fork in the
> road" are now gone.  Although I guess many of the USPTO people who
> accepted the "fork in the road" would have ceased work long before
> September 30.
>
> I can imagine that this new long delay in forwarding to the Examiner
> might be different from one Tech Center to the next.  One Tech Center
> might have lost more LIEs than another.
>
> Is it just me, or have others also been seeing new delays in forwarding
> to the Examiner?
>
> Carl
>
>
>
> --
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>
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>
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